Winter
by artemissan09
Summary: MMHG. A letter from Minerva to Hermione. Angst, possible romance, one shot? Rating for possible future chapters...Now complete!
1. Chapter 1

**Winter**

**A/N: Well, this just popped into my head…hope everyone likes it, and please tell me if you think I should continue, I dunno if this is good where it ends. **

**Warning: FEMMESLASH folks, don't like, I suggest you don't read…**

_Ms. Hermione Granger,_

_You kissed me in the summer of your seventh year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the week before you were to graduate. I don't believe there had ever been a happier moment in my life. In your seven years at this school I had watched you grow in more ways than imaginable, learn more than the boundaries of knowledge had allowed, mature much more than just physically...and love…greater than I had ever felt before._

_You had never laid a hand upon my skin, but your touch reached down to the depths of my soul, releasing feelings that I never thought I possessed. Yes, Ms. Granger, I had taught you the basics of magic, but you taught me a greater magic, one that I had never experienced before._

_I was terribly elated, bitter sweetly happy when you received your diploma from this school. I damned myself for not having the heart to tell you how I felt, and yet, I rejoiced when I saw you walk up to shake the hand of the world's finest wizard, Albus Dumbledore. I guess I was proud of what you had done here, Hermione, who wouldn't be? I put on a smile when you departed the next day, decided that I couldn't see you upset just because I felt like a wretched old fool who didn't know who she was. _

_I cried like a heartbroken infant that night and a few days after, but only when I was with myself and my thoughts. Now, several years later, I find myself still weeping whenever I think of you. Especially now, in the winter, with time moving so slowly._

_They say that everything perishes in the winter, no sign of vibrance, not even the smallest trace of life to be found. I say that with winter, everything is drug to within an inch of itself, the only thing left it has to hold on to; miserable, white, blankness engulfs everything now with only the smallest of hopes to begin with the promises of spring. _

_I cannot fight this battle any longer, my inch of life driven to bareness. There is no promise of spring and new beginnings of life to come for me, I dread. _

_You kissed me in the summer of your seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as you left, Ms. Granger, I do believe you walked out with my heart, and now I have nothing to make it through the winter._

_My heart is yours eternally, it seems,_

_Minerva M. McGonagall_

**A/N: Just a short little angsty drabble to release some inner emotions. I have the next part started, if anyone thinks I should continue…In other words, review or I probably won't believe anyone is interested…little blue button is dying to be itched…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Winter**

**A/N: So, here be the second (final?) installment…feedback keeps me going…**

Hermione placed the letter with the all too familiar emerald cursive on her kitchen table, and stared outside. Indeed, it would seem that life everywhere was diminishing with the coming of winter. Without any particular reason, she stepped outside and was surprised when she was greeted with the desperate and pathetic cries of a rather small, quite frozen, young, tabby kitten.

With a raised eyebrow, Hermione pondered if there really were such things as coincidences; first Minerva, unable to survive without the returning of her heart, and now this kitten, surely to die if left out here in the cold…She was awaken from her thoughts by another loud cry from the kitten. Hermione shuddered as well, the bitter iciness of winter rippling up her spine.

She bent down and gently picked up the small cat and carried it inside away from the threat of the cold. It was shivering violently, and she stroked it in hopes that it would warm up. Hermione sat the kitten down on the kitchen table, alongside the letter and placed a warming spell on a small bowl of cream. Crookshanks leapt upon the table, annoyed that once again, some foreign thing was turning her owner's attention away from her.

When Hermione was finally convinced that the kitten was content, she summoned a quill and parchment and sat down at the table with the cats and the cream.

For the longest time, she sat there, staring blankly at the paper. What was she to write? The kiss she shared with Minerva so long ago still burned upon her lips, and the feeling that she had at that moment still lingered within her heart. Had she stolen Minerva's heart? And if so, what was she to tell her? The whole idea of a relationship was ridiculous, and she felt naïve when she thought about what her past held, and now, someone even older was stirring these absurd notions within her.

Hermione glanced at the parchment, and then turned her gaze to the kitten which had proceeded to place its paw upon the soon to be letter. She glanced back down, and back to the kitten once more. It gave a soft meow before Hermione looked down at the parchment with a determined expression upon her face.

She wrote,

_Dearest Minerva,_

_I am your promise of spring. _

_Would you like me to deliver your heart in a box, or am I to believe you will want a personal appearance?_

_Sorry to have stolen your heart,_

_Hermione J. Granger_

Just as Hermione had helped the small tabby, Hermione would save her own tabby from the dead of winter's hold. She attached the scroll to the leg of her owl and sent it on its way, with every hope that the weather would not delay him.

Yes, Hermione decided, she would see Minerva through the winter, and possibly many more to come.

**A/N: Well, there is the second part…I'm thinking of continuing, but I would like to know what you all think…**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **So, I just literally thought of where this story was going while I was making hot cocoa and getting my cat out of the milk…hence the ending….now READ before I die of anticipation! And don't forget to leave lovely little reviews! They make my day full of sunshine…And, BTW, I'm thinking of a sequel, so tell me what you think…

**Winter**

Without waiting for a response from Minerva, Hermione prepared herself for a visit to Hogwarts. She packed minimally, since she could always make a trip to Hogsmeade if the occasion would call for it.

She gathered up her things in a trunk and somehow managed to convince Crookshanks and the new kitten into a magically enchanted bag with room aplenty for both of them.

As she put on her coat, wrapped her scarf around her neck, and got her gloves on her graceful hands, she went around her small flat to make sure everything was in order before she made her hasty leave.

When all was right in the eyes of the young witch, she stuck her wand in her pocket, grabbed the bags and the felines, and apparated right outside the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Although, from an outside glance, one could not have guessed that it was a place of education. The grounds were quite barren and white, and there was not a student to be seen anywhere. 'End of term break should be the cause of this.' Hermione thought to herself as she opened the gate.

After what seemed like an odyssey through a frigid blizzard, she arrived at the castle doors and reached for the handle. Before she made contact, however, the door burst open and one very distraught looking Minerva McGonagall nearly died of shock.

"HERMIONE JANE GRANGER!" Hermione flinched as that Scottish anger she was all too familiar with made its' unwanted appearance. In fact, she was so shocked, she dropped her luggage, and the bag the cats were resting in toppled over and opened.

Crookshanks immediately sprinted out and into the castle, no doubt to venture the long forgotten corridors of Hogwarts. The small kitten, however, hesitantly poked her head out of the bag before making her appearance. With a soft meow, the kitten found her owners' feet and began to rub Hermione's legs in pursuit of warmth.

Hermione bent down and picked up the small kitten, stroking it's head and eliciting a purr of delight from the frail thing.

Before Minerva had another chance to yell about the stupidity of Hermione wandering about in the Winter's chill, the younger witch gently placed the content kitten in Minerva's arms where it continued to nestle around to generate some sort of heat.

"Your heart, dearest." Hermione whispered as a startled Minerva looked up, tears forming in the corners of her magnificent Emerald orbs. "I couldn't have just let it die out in the cold, now could I?" she said as she wiped away the crystals from her beloved's cheek.

Minerva smiled for what seemed like the first time in ages as the kitten rubbed her head under the older witches' chin. "No, I should hope not…" Minerva smiled. "Now do come in before you catch pneumonia, dearest. It's much too cold out here for any living being. Let's get you in and warmed up, shall we?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow and smiled mischievously. "Why, Professor McGonagall, I thought you'd never ask."

Minerva blushed and picked up Hermione's luggage for her. "Professor? I haven't been your professor in years. Please, call me Minerva for heaven's sakes!" she insisted, completely steering around the sexual reference she believed Hermione had made.

"Minerva."

"Much better," was the only reply as the three made their way into the warmth, away from the dead of…

Winter.


End file.
